Sonia and Marty’s Classic Melbourne Beachside Wedding

Sonia & Marty

We both knew that the connection was instant from our very first date when I travelled to country Victoria to see him. From there, we commuted back and forth, until realizing that we were meant for each other! Marty made the move down to Melbourne and we moved into our first apartment together.

After Marty proposed the following year, we planned our wedding close to our home that we loved in St Kilda, at the beautiful iconic Little Blue Restaurant at the end of the picturesque St Kilda Pier. We wanted small and intimate, with a setting that would speak for itself – which Little Blue provided in the spring. Little did we know that we would end up postponing our wedding plans until 2015, after I fell pregnant with our son.

I had a very clear idea of my dress right from the start. I didn’t want big or overdone, that wasn’t me at all. I wanted modern, but classic, romantic even, just like my solitaire diamond from Tiffany & Co., which Marty proposed with.

I tried on one dress in one store, and knew it was the one. A beautiful, drapey off white silk gown from Carla Zampatti that was just perfect. I then chose my flowers around the Grecian nature of the dress, with neutral tones being the look I wanted. My bouquet was a posy of beautiful roses, laced with olive leaf, silver suede and baby’s breath. To match, my florist Dani, at Da Bloom, made me a delicate floral crown instead of a veil, from olive leaf and baby’s breath.

We spent the weekend at The Prince Hotel in St Kilda; it is so sentimental to Marty and me and we booked the executive suite so that our whole bridal party could get ready there and we could get some great photos. My twin sisters, who were both pregnant at the time, and my brothers in law made up our small bridal party. Like any modern bride, my bridesmaids wore black dresses with neutral heels.

Carla from Carla Rae Makeup is an old work friend of mine, and knowing how great she is, I had secured her to do our makeup. Because all of my styling was so simple, we went for a beautiful pop of pink on my lips, whilst my sisters had soft, glowing neutral makeup which Carla was just fantastic with.

Who do you choose to photograph one of the biggest days of your life? For us, this decision was so easy. Zaharoula at Zedphotography is a family friend and amazing at her job, and had photographed my sister’s wedding, our pregnancy, and our newborn shoots – so our trust in her to capture our day the way I wanted was unmeasurable. With the help of her assistant Mike, we captured the most beautiful candid images, with our son and family around our hotel and South Melbourne.

She bought out the best in my husband who hates photos and got those shots that you just want to remember forever. We definitely turned some heads as we had some photographs taken at Georgie’s Harvest, one of the market stall holders, with a lot of people stopping to look at us in such an unusual setting. The photo from there is one of my favourites.

Our intimate ceremony was conducted by the very talented Sally Hughes, whom we just adored. She had been working with us from the year before before we changed the dates, and the ceremony was so perfect! Her words were so engaging and by the time we recited our vows, which we wrote ourselves but didn’t share until the day, there were tears not just from us but from some of the guests too!

My father walked me down the aisle to a piano version of “A Thousand Years” before giving me away. Sally’s attention to our story, and her telling of it was so memorable, and what she puts in, like speaking to all the guests, seating special guests and talking behind the scenes to our bridal party were just above and beyond our expectations. The best part was when she had already given instructions to the guests to repeat after her in pronouncing us husband and wife. It was such a great touch and got everyone excited and involved in our ceremony before we signed our certificates.

We then got a great group photo with the water and city skyline as our backdrop out on the pier and went straight into the canapé entrees, out on the decking and inside the venue.

We didn’t want to go overboard with decorations, as the venue was in such an amazing location – right on the water, that we let it speak for itself. With the help of some white lanterns inside, fairy lights out on the deck, candles everywhere and some beautiful olive and baby’s breath garlands by our florist, it was simple and classic, exactly how I wanted.

The venue was such a perfect setting for a spring wedding. We had the most perfect sunny day with a gorgeous sunset right on the water with the city in the background. It was very relaxed and romantic. We had an array of delicious canapé entrees and desserts, along with a sit down main meal – so that for most of the night people were free to roam around and mingle with one another. We cut our tiered orange and almond flourless cake, made by the beautiful girls at Cake Ink, to John Legends “All Of Me” played by our  DJ, DJ Kwenda. He was amazing at getting everyone up dancing and having a great time.

For the final song of the evening he gathered everyone into a circle so that Marty and I could go around and thank everyone individually. We gave our guests beautiful vanilla bean cookie pop favours made by the talented Treats for Evie, before the night came to an end.

I had never believed it before when people say your wedding day goes so fast, but it certainly did! It was such a memorable whirlwind for us from start to finish!